Dashcam/Sentry Mode documentation limits as related to media capacity?

[DtEW]

So today I went into work and parked next to another car. A couple hours later I came back to my MY and noticed that Sentry Mode had captured a coworker checking out some paint damage to the side of her car (that one I parked next to). I didn't notice this existing damage on her car when I pulled-in, and inspection of my own MY confirms my own recollection that I definitely didn't hit her car. Now, I haven't been accused of a parking mishap. I didn't even observe this coworker inspecting my MY out of suspicion. Maybe she knew exactly when this happened, which didn't coincide with my parking next to her. But I like to dot-my-I's-and-cross-my-T's, so when I got home I intended to pull the Dashcam file that showed me pulling-in, which should both show the existing damage on her car, to establish my innocence beyond-a-shadow-of-a-doubt. It was also an exercise to learn exactly what the Tesla Dashcam/Sentry Mode does, and how to harvest files from it.

I pulled the USB flash drive from the glovebox and ran chkdsk [drive]: /f /x /r. The 128gb flash drive had ~119gb of usable capacity, with ~71gb occupied in a "TESLACAM" folder. Within the "TESLACAM" folder there was a:

• ~6.5gb "RecentClips" folder, which contained 237 files that constitute the contiguous documentation of roughly the last hour of the MY, except for instances the car deemed necessary for saving and presentation in the "SavedClips" and "SentryClips" folders.
• ~4gb "SavedClips" folder, which contained 3 folders of driving instances that for reasons beyond me, the car deemed noteworthy to present.
• ~61gb "SentryCam" folder, which contained 62 folders of parked instances that triggered Sentry Mode. I guess this is a testament to my negligent housekeeping on this front.

Since I had been parked for a couple of hours, the particular moment that I had pulled into this parking spot did not exist within the roughly ~1hr of documentation of the "RecentClips" folder. And that driving instance wasn't noteworthy enough to have been saved and presented in the "SavedClips" folder... which is of course another affirmation of my innocence, but not "slam dunk" evidence, esp. now that I'm futzing around with the USB flash drive. Oh well.

So I wonder if people know:

1. Is Dashcam/Sentry Mode designed to leave a proportion of the flash drive empty as a workspace, or in reserve? There was still 48gb of free space that could have been utilized.
2. Is "RecentClips" limited to only the last hour, or could it hold a longer documentation period were more space free space available to Dashcam/Sentry Mode? (exFAT allows ~2.7 million files per folder, so it's definitely not a file system limitation.)
3. If I were to buy this when it becomes available, or another higher capacity flash drive/SSD... would this allow a longer documentation period? Or will this only allow me to accumulate more Sentry Mode entries, Saved Clips, and video games?

 

[CharlieBaskets]

Do you record 100% of your driving? I'm trying to understand why it would record you parking.

 

[Iron]

Ok, firstly if there is paint damage on her car, there would be damage or scrapes on yours. That would be easy to disprove.

Still familiarizing myself with my MY, but I did come across video clips taken while I drive, so I believe it's always recording dash cam footage. Guess it just overwrites when full. I know enough to honk horn if I want to save footage from being overwritten.

Op, u don't need to buy expensive Tesla storage. Any high capacity drive will do, I believe. Just format it.

Insert the USB drive into a front USB port and touch Controls > Safety > Format USB Drive. This automatically formats the USB drive as exFAT and creates a folder for TeslaCam and TeslaTrackMode (if equipped). The USB drive is now ready to record and save video footage.